Trump Imposes Tariffs On Diego Garcia Base After Approving Base’s Sovereignty Transfer
The United States announced April 2 that it would be imposing 10% tariffs on the island chain hosting the Diego Garcia air base it jointly operates with the United Kingdom, a day after the UK said it had received President Donald Trump’s approval to proceed with a deal to transfer sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius.
The 10% rate is the minimum rate for tariffs announced during Trump’s “Liberation Day” speech, despite the British Indian Ocean Territory having no human inhabitants or economic activities other than the U.S. and UK military personnel and private contractors operating the Diego Garcia air base.
This development comes amidst a buildup of United States Air Force B-2 stealth bombers at the air base. Satellite photographs show six B-2s at the base after Trump threatened Iran with “bombing the likes of which they have never seen before” should Tehran not agree to new talks on its nuclear program, with the Federation of American Scientists saying that the deployment represents half of the active B-2 fleet.
On Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said Trump had approved the UK to finalize negotiations of a deal that would transfer sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius in exchange for a 99 year lease of the Diego Garcia base, saying he recognized the “strength” of the deal. “My understanding is it’s now between us and the Mauritian government to finalise the deal, following the discussions with the US”.
The UK announced a deal with Mauritius to transfer sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory in October 2024 with the backing of the United States President at the time, Joe Biden. However, finalization of the deal has been delayed by the election of a new Mauritian Prime Minister, Dr. Navin Ramgoolam, who demanded that negotiations on the deal be reopened; as well as uncertainty over whether the Trump administration would veto the deal.
Mauritius says it was forced to relinquish the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Chagos Archipelago constituting the Territory in order to gain independence from the United Kingdom in 1968 in violation of United Nations resolutions, with the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea ruling in 2021 that the islands should be handed back to Mauritius. However, Chagossians forcibly displaced by the United Kingdom to allow the building of the Diego Garcia base in the 1970s say they have not been consulted during the negotiations.